Month: September 2012


Sep
2012

Quiet 29th

categories: Uncategorized

Last Monday the 24th, I quietly celebrated my 29th. Woke up and doing a self-check on the mirror–I’m 29?! A year befor the big 3-0 and I told my husband to throw party for me. Yeah, I want a party to celebrate this milestone in my life.

How I celebrated the countdown to 30?

During the day, I heard Mass with sleeping Aria in the nearby mall. I let the helper go around the mall since we have different religions (not an issue to us, we’ve been very understanding especially with her schedule of church services). We had lunch and did some grocery before heading home to rest. I then went to my high school to teach the choir and drum and lyre groups for their Founding Anniversary.

We planned a family dinner at wherelse, Friday’s! We got coupons and doscount card during Aria’s birthday and we want to maximize the discounts. Plus, I want to eat their kid’s pizza again!

Then my husband bought the yummiest, richest chocolate cake, and has a dedication written. So sweet of him!

There you go. Uneventful, really, but happy to have spent it with the people I love.

~ Touringkitty


Sep
2012

Of toddlers and (very long) naps

categories: Breastfeeding, Health, Parenting

Ever since her waking world began, Aria has sleeping issues.

No, make that, ever since in utero, Aria had sleeping issues — when she used to rock my whole body in the middle of the morning with her strong kicks and punches.

In the past two years, you could only count the times she slept on her own without having to nurse. With much excitement, I tweeted, took pics, and posted on Facebook those few precious times that she slept without the aid of the “dede!” We achieved this by rocking her, singing to her, tapping her thighs. But it’s hit or miss, and always, a miss.

As expected, her schedule is erratic during daytime. Generally she sleeps well in the evening, as long as I’m beside her for easy boob access. Sometimes she takes one morning nap of about 1 hour, then another hour of nap in the afternoon. Last month, her pattern is four to five hour naps. Yes, as long as FIVE HOURS! Imagine what time she sleeps in the evening!

Poor Nonna (my mom), who sacrifices carrying sleepyhead Aria just to make her nap as long as she wants.

The past days, she naps for no more than two hours. The shortest is about 30 minutes. If this is the case, she can sleep early, maybe around 9 or 10 PM. We could notice that she exhausts her energies first by trying to be awake and play with us until she feels really really sleepy. The vampire Aria wakes up as early as we do–at 6 AM! Sleep deprived is she, nevertheless she’s still full of energy all the time.

But this week is a different story. Few days back, my mom called me at work to tell me that Aria napped for 45 minutes. My husband came home earlier and texted Aria slept–with her nightgown already–at 6:30 PM! I came home from grocery at 9PM and she’s still asleep. My arrival was just in time for her to be half awake and look for the “dede.” So I change to my night clothes and laid down beside her to nurse–switching boob every two seconds! I hope she doesn’t wake up way too early!

Should I cut the long naps, then? My only worry is that Aria is so unpredictably cranky when she doesn’t get a good sleep, or if she is disturbed by some tiny sound. Her bionic ears are so bionic that she wakes up when we’re whispering, or when a fork moves. I pity her when she got her deep sleep and when she’s in the REM stage, even a small noise wakes her up. She ends up just crying and crying and waking up already.

One more thing is night nursing. We still aren’t successful with this. But should we really cut the night nursing at this stage? Me and my husband says not yet but some reading materials say otherwise. Surprisingly, there are nights when she asks for fresh milk instead of mommy’s milk, so we give her before sleeping.

How about you, mommies, do you sleep train? How do you do it?

~ Touringkitty


Sep
2012

Breastfeeding for all seasons and reasons: post-breastfeeding month post

categories: Breastfeeding

August came by too quick that I wasn’t able to post something about breastfeeding. So let me do it now!

It’s been exactly two years and twelve days that I’m breastfeeding. Not a day missed, not a feeding missed. Not a drop of formula. No pacifiers. Attended breastfeeding meetings to increase knowledge in breastfeeding and parenting. Donated a few bags of frozen breastmilk to strangers. Promoted breastfeeding in all ways. Nursed in public–lately without nursing cover (thank heavens for tank tops and shawls and ring slings!).

I have surpassed all my breastfeeding goals that I’ve set since pregnancy.

Sometimes I ask myself if it’s still normal, that at two she still breastfeeds for whatever reason she has. I wonder what could her reason be. Hungry? Thirsty? Sleepy? Bored? Tired? Scared? Excited? Crying? Learning a new word or skill? Missing Mommy? I don’t know.

Not that I’m pressured to wean her. Not at all! I gave my full dedication, determination, and trust that I can provide the milk that she needed, especially the past two years where it is part and parcel integral to her health. Especially with the new studies coming out about breastmilk, there is no other way I could have nourished her well!

But my daughter is still my baby, my dear one, who needs to suckle to satisfy whatever it is that has to be satisfied. So it will be a mutual agreement between us when she will wean. Besides, my husband might be the happiest and the one who benefits to my breastfeeding the most–imagine if he had to learn how to prepare formula milk in the middle of the night and after a hard day’s work?!

Plus, the money which we were supposed to spend on formula gets spent on food, food, and more food! Especially now that we’re raising a foodie who likes yogurt, raisins, bread, and fresh milk (yes, the ones in carton, waaaay better than formula–BUT only for those ABOVE ONE YEAR OLD–breastmilk should still there to fill in their nutritional and immunological requirements!).

Tips for new and soon to be moms:

1. There’s no harm in trying. Who said breastfeeding is easy? And who said preparing formula milk is easier?

2. Attitude, dedication, determination, patience. Those four are all self-emanating. It starts with you and your baby.

3. Support. Lots of it. From your husband most especially. And involve the whole family and extended family in the process, especially those who are planning to go back to the workforce after a couple of months. Attend breastfeeding meets as a whole barangay if you can! The more you make people around you aware, the more they will realize the need for support.

4. Do your homework. Research, read, ask around. The internet was super useful to me because my mom had only limited experience breastfeeding me and my sister. I made lots of friends who share the same passion and dedication about breastfeeding.

5. Prayers. He listens. Whenever I feel like giving up, I have the Blessed Mother to ask Divine Intervention to. My devotion to Our Lady of La Leche is one of the strongest and most special devotions I have right now.

Happy breastfeeding from our breastfeeding family!

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~ Touringkitty


Sep
2012

Birthday Gift to Aria

categories: Parenting

Of all the things I forgot, a gift!!!

But this one I wrote one late night in early August. Will definitely have this framed soon. In the meantime, hope you’ll read and like this, too!

—

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What joy, what bliss
To see our daughter grow
In our arms, in our eyes
Her body and spirit glow.

What happiness can compare
To this gem so rare
Her wit, her laughter
Our hearts she has captured.

What pride we feel
Now that she turned two
And we anticipate
More things she can do.

Happy Birthday, dearest Ariadne!
To God we pray
That you’ll be a better you
Each passing day.

Love, Mommy and Daddy


Sep
2012

A Mother’s Prayer

categories: Uncategorized

Dear Lord,

We acknowledge that You are our mighty God. The earth is indeed filled with Your goodness, and words aren’t enough to express our gratefulness unto You.

I come to You as a mother. And I am now aware that a mother’s love is boundless, timeless, and selfless.

I thank You for giving me Mama Mary, Your own mother. Her genuine love for You is inspiring. She followed Your ways, not hers. She gave her trust to You, completely and without question.

I thank You for giving my own Mommy Luz. She is the wind beneath my wings. Her support and care to me and my sister, even extending it to my own family, is admirable. We may argue about a lot of things but the love is there. I pray that You bless her and grant her with a long, happy life. May we make more time with her as her children and always remember how it is to be young, helpless, and dependent of our mother. And may we replicate exactly, or even more, how much of a mother she is to us.

I thank You for the blessing of making me a mother of my own. It is such a wonderful thing and I only realized it until I became one. Please turn my envy into admiration, procrastination into productivity, whining into winning, and mommy pride into more mommy pride! I am such a stage mother this early in the game. I am confident that my daughter will be the person she ought to be, even though she’s makulit, malikot, and maingay.

I thank You and Our Lady of La Leche for allowing me to breastfeed. It’s the most important gift I have given my daughter for the past two years. And I was able to share some milk with babies we don’t know, even if it’s only how many bags. That is in itself a testament that mothers CAN produce enough, and in some cases, MORE than ENOUGH breastmilk. This coupled with sacrifice, dedication, and support.

I pray for my husband. He’s my hero in every sense of the word. May he be more patient to me and our daughter. Grant him good health always.

Thank You for giving us a loving community of family and friends, near and far, who support our family in more ways than one. Thank You for the provisions of a stable job for us both (and jobs that we love doing), security in our small condo unit we call Schatzihaus, the new helper, healthyummy foods, extra gadgets, more than enough budget for expenses. Thank You for those little treats!

We shall continue to give honor and praise to You, dearest Lord. Amen.